Teacher
by Bronze Cat
Summary: Life is an adventure. She is happy to bob along on her own, while she sets others upon the start of theirs. Many don't know her but the few that do will always remember her; that funny little witch who taught them to read and filled their heads with stories.


Life is an adventure, she has always thought.

She has touched the lives of many, with her quiet voice and smiling eyes, but few acknowledge her once they have left her and some do not even know she exists. She is happy to keep on bobbing along on her search for adventure while she sets others upon their own paths.

The little flat she has made a home for herself in is an eclectic mix of the Muggle and Wizarding worlds that perfectly reflects who she is as a person. Her family were Pureblood and she had grown up waiting eagerly for the day she would receive the letter from Hogwarts. When the day finally came when she sat on the Sorting Hat's stool, the tear in the brim opened and proclaimed for all to hear that she was Sorted into Hufflepuff.

Her father was mortified; her elder brother had been Sorted into Slytherin like him and most of her mother's side were either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. Yet somehow, his strange little daughter - who they had all been certain would have been a Ravenclaw for her shrewd and curious mind - had become a _Hufflepuff._

Of course, his wayward daughter skipped merrily further down her wayward path. She liked the classes he and her mother deemed weaker; rubbish like Charms and Ancient Runes. While her elder brother excelled in Arithmancy and Transfiguration, she began to discover a passion for _Muggle Studies _of all things.

At least she could get a job in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, her father thought wearily from his desk in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

But no. Instead, upon leaving Hogwarts, she decided that she wanted to wander amongst the Muggles. It took her a while to get the hang of dressing properly but by now she can move through the Muggle world with ease. She likes Africa and the Middle East the most and her flat is filled with trinkets from Morocco and Egypt.

She doesn't speak with her family much anymore, although she sees her brother's grandson once a week during lessons. She is a teacher; preparing the young minds of the Pureblood families to enter Hogwarts. It seemed peculiar to her that they received so little schooling before entering Hogwarts and she thought something ought to be done about it.

On Mondays through Wednesdays, she runs a little classroom out of a back room of the Leaky Cauldron. She takes children of all ages and abilities and teaches them their reading, writing and arithmetic skills as well as telling them tales of her adventures and reading to them from Beedle the Bard and other old stories. Neville Longbottom has been coming to these classes for some years now. He is marched in by Augusta at ten o'clock promptly and picked up at three o'clock promptly. He barely speaks and is a little hopeless at Arithmetic but he can read exceptionally well for his age. She only wishes he would come out of his shell a little more. He reminds her an awful lot of herself before she found her passions.

On Thursdays, she runs a select class for some of the children of the Elitist Purebloods who do not want their children mingling with lesser folk. These lessons, she does not look forward to. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle are so thick-witted that she is surprised when they give her any work to mark at all, Theodore Nott often refuses to study and demands frequent breaks, Daphne Greengrass daydreams constantly and Pansy Parkinson spends all of her time mooning over the worst of the lot, Draco Malfoy. The only light in these troubling sessions is Daphne's younger sister, Astoria, who has only recently begun attending lessons. She is a joy to teach and she picks up each lesson quickly.

And finally, on Fridays she goes to the Burrow. At the table where she had once taught Arthur and his younger brothers, she now teaches the new generation of Weasley children. The elder three have been at Hogwarts for some years but they like to join them with some homework while she works with the twins, Ron and little Ginny. The twins are going to Hogwarts in the autumn and they are so excited she can barely make them concentrate. Ron is deeply jealous of them, that much she can tell, and she gets the same feeling from Ginny. Their time will come, she tells them often, and when it does they will have the greatest adventure of all!

The twins always look rather dejected when she says this so she has to promise them a great adventure too and then all four start clamouring for details of their futures. Last time this happened, Percy had glared at them over his History of Magic essay and asked her rather pompously if she would mind not filling their heads with such nonsense. Bill and Charlie had rolled their eyes at that and she herself had been left wondering over the third Weasley son, so desperate to be older and more mature than his thirteen years.

Still, she loves her Fridays with the Weasleys. A day in their warm and cosy kitchen is a lovely way to unwind at the end of a difficult week with a cup of tea and a gossip with Molly when the lessons are over. She never takes any payments from the Weasleys but she will never say no to a box of fresh home-baking or a new "enhanced" Muggle trinket from Arthur's shed.

The week-end is hers to do with as she pleases.

Sometimes she reads, sometimes she explores a part of London she has not been to before and sometimes she Apparates even further afield for a new tiny adventure.

And sometimes, she goes North. Sometimes she Apparates to the village she once explored as a teenager and walks up the path to the castle she called home for seven years. If it is term time then she occasionally sees one of her old students and stops to ask them how they are enjoying school and which lessons are their favourite.

Eventually, she reaches the office of her classmate and oldest friend. Minerva will always welcome her in warmly and, with a cup of tea and a Ginger Newt in hand, she will tell her about her young charges and how she expects them to do when they transition to Hogwarts to begin their magical education. When she has finished, Minerva occasionally tells her about some new Muggle-borns they have found. There is one girl in particular who looks like she will be a very promising student one day.

What joys and mysteries await them, she thinks with a smile. Even the Purebloods really have no idea. They won't truly understand until the moment the Sorting Hat touches their heads.

And off she goes, back to her funny little flat to prepare for another week of lessons. She is just another teacher bobbing along in the lives of others; preparing the children of the Wizarding world for their greatest adventure yet.

* * *

><p><strong>Just a small idea I had. Obviously Muggle-borns will attend primary school and I presume Half-bloods could do the same but what of the Purebloods? I can hardly see Draco trotting off to the local school and, while I read somewhere that Molly home-schooled the Weasleys, I can't imagine Lucius and Narcissa sitting at the kitchen table teaching Draco his ABCs. So I came up with this eccentric nameless witch who travels around tutoring the Purebloods. <strong>

**I hope you enjoyed it, and best wishes upon your own adventure.**


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